this is from the Diversity Section of the St.Louis American newspaper.
No diversity plan, no license
Missouri Gaming Commission, oversees that casinos provide and comply to
a detailed workforce diversity plan. The policy was established by the
Missouri Gaming Commission in 2008.
Casinos cannot get or renew their casino licenses without a diversity plan.
That’s the policy that the Missouri Gaming Commission
established in 2008. It requires any applicant, for licensure or
renewal license, to provide a detailed workforce diversity plan, said
John Nathan, who was hired as the compliance officer in 2006 to oversee
the process.
And the state’s 13 casinos must submit quarterly reports on minority participation as well.
The quarterly reports include employee, managers and
directors demographics, minority vendor/supplier information and
construction spending.
Starting last year, in compliance with state statute,
the commission took a more rigorous step – auditing quarterly reports.
The commission contracted with a third-party certified professional
accounting firm to verify the casinos’ minority/women business
enterprise quarterly statistical reports, Nathan said.
In addition to a 100-percent review of all contracts
with M/WBE’s before re-licensure every two years, the CPA firm looks at
all minority certification. If a vendor is found not to be certified as
a M/WBE, the commission will exclude their spending amount from the
minority statistical reports.
In June, the St. Louis American submitted
a Sunshine law request for the first audits. Two audits have been
completed so far – Kansas City’s Isle of Capri and Argosy Casino.
On May 10, 2010, the firm completed its audit of the
Isle of Capri in Kansas City. In its overall findings, it states that
“the casino did not have sufficient documentation to substantiate or
identify the MBE and WBE spending. The reports had errors in the
calculations, which caused the summary information not to add up to the
totals.”
For calendar year ended Dec. 31, 2008, the Isle of
Capri’s certified MBE utilization was 2.39 percent, but it reported
8.94 percent. For calendar year ended Dec. 31, 2009, the MBE
utilization was 4.23 percent, and the casino reported 6.57 percent.
Breaking it down quarter by quarter, the difference in
what the casino reported and the MBEs it actually utilized was more
severe.
For example, in 2009, for the first, second, third and
fourth quarters, the casino’s certified MBE utilizations were 3.14,
1.81, 3.65 and 1.65 percent. It reported 6.10, 9.33, 10.43, and 1.60
percent.
By seeing the difference in what casinos self-report
and what the auditor finds, Nathan said the audit process is essential
for ensuring minority participation.
The quarterly reports also track diversity in
employment. For 2010 at Isle of Capri, the casino reported that 31
percent of employees are black and 18 percent manager/director
positions are black.
At St. Louis’ Lumiere Casino for 2010, 40 percent of employees are black and 16 percent of managers or directors are black.
In addition to the audits, the commission’s compliance
offi-cer, Nathan, who worked for Social Security Administration for 30
years, makes personal visits to the casinos. He tries to build a
relationship with the casinos to help them succeed in their minority
participation goals, he said.
To ensure that casinos are aware of their local
diversity vendor resources, Nathan also takes the vendor lists of every
casino and compiles them into one list.
That way, if casinos find themselves with a low
minority-inclusion rate because they cannot find M/WBE vendors, Nathan
can hand them the list, he said.
What Nathan is looking for is progress.
“The commission doesn’t want someone retrogressing,” he said. “In the three plus years, we’ve made great strides.”
The commission itself does not set quotas for the
casinos. It holds each casino up to the MBE/WBE goals that each casino
sets for itself. For example, Lumiere, the City of St. Louis and
Pinnacle Entertainment, which owns the casino, set a minority
participation goal of 25 percent.
Prior to contracting the CPA firm for the audits,
Nathan himself would call a sample of vendors to make sure they were
certified.
“I couldn’t do 100 percent,” Nathan said. “It’s just
magnificent what the commission is trying to do. It solidified the
efforts to assure that we were serious.”
Nathan expects that all the audits will be completed
by October. Nathan said the audits will help the commission to see
whether “we were accomplishing what we wanted to do.”
Nathan also meets with the minority vendors to get to
know the industry, along with Missouri legislators and local officers.
The entire process – from the audits to visiting
vendors –helps to achieve the maximum participation of minority and
women in the procurement of contractual purchase of goods and services,
Nathan said.
“The commission is committed to full inclusion of minority and women with all the casinos in Missouri,” Nathan said.
